Overwrite existing file and Rename

Question

I am trying to rename a file Members.csv.

Get-ChildItem ".\" -Filter '*Members*.csv' | where {
    $_.LastWriteTime.GetDateTimeFormats()[44] -eq $today
} | Rename-Item -NewName "hello2.csv" -Force

-Force is not working. If hello2 exists already the renaming will not take place.

I found this thread saying that we have to use Move-Item. but I am not sure how to incorporate it in my code.

rename-item and override if filename exists

Get-ChildItem index.*.txt | ForEach-Object {
    $NewName = $_.Name -replace "^(index\.)(.*)",'$2'
    $Destination = Join-Path -Path $_.Directory.FullName -ChildPath $NewName
    Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $Destination -Force
}

I am not trying to replace, I'm renaming the entire name so I don't know what to do for this part:

$NewName = $_.Name = "hello2"

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '19 at 21:04

The -Force parameter of Rename-Item does not allow you to replace an existing file by renaming another. From the documentation:

-Force

Forces the cmdlet to rename items that cannot otherwise be changed, such as hidden or read-only files or read-only aliases or variables. The cmdlet cannot change constant aliases or variables. Implementation varies from provider to provider. For more information, see about_Providers.

You need to use Move-Item -Force, as you already found out, and it's used in exactly the same way you're trying to use Rename-Item in your first code snippet:

Get-ChildItem -Filter '*Members*.csv' | Where-Object {
    $_.LastWriteTime.GetDateTimeFormats()[44] -eq $today
} | Move-Item -Destination "hello2.csv" -Force

Beware that if after the Where-Object you have more than one item, each of them will replace the previous one, so you'll effectively end up removing all but one of them.

Overwrite existing file and Rename

1 Answers1